Saturday, August 25, 2012

My grandmother used to have many kitchen accessories based on prairie points - covered for her mixmaster and toaster, oven mits, and a potstand. This version of the potstand uses the points from recycled men business shirt collars.

Press and cut off 8 collars from recycled mens business shirts. Cut off each point so you have eight matching pairs of points (16 points). Set aside.

Press and cut from the panel of the business shirt, two squares measuring 16cm each.

Cut a 16cm square of wadding. Set aside.

Select one of the business shirt squares to be the base of your potstand front construction. Mark the centre point of the square, and lay your two smallest points sets onto this square, matching pairs opposite. Use the picture as a guide. Stitch these four points into position on the back edge

Take the next two smallest sets of points and layer these onto the front on a diagonal angle from each corner, using picture as a guide. Stitch into place on back edges. Overlap so that the new layer hides the stitching at the back of the previous layer.

Repeat the layering and stitching on of the points until the potstand front is covered, using the pictures as guides. Trim the final pairs to the square corner shape of the base.

With right sides together, match the potstand top with the base square of business shirt. Add a layer of wadding to this pile and pin the three layers together.

Mark a 5cm gap in one side for turning, and stitch around the edge of the potstand 1cm from the edge. You may need a strong needle as this sandwich is quite thick.

Clip curves and turn through the potstand. Press very well into shape. Invisibly close the turning hole with ladder stitch. You may want to catch a couple of points down from the front to the back to keep flat.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

I have been hard at work turning a collection of my handmade hanky bird into mobiles. The results are lovely. They move nicely in the breeze and are all unique. They look a bit like a flock of birds in flight.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

My stitched tea cosy "A Little Bird Told Me" is featured on the cover of this month's Creating Country Threads magazine.

This project allowed me to combine a simple stitchery in just a couple of colours with some iron on applique work. I stuck with a strong, simple image and tried to add some humour to the work by having the back side image featuring a second bird carrying a flower to present to the bird its seen on the cup.

Red is one of my favourite colours to work with, and the all over floral in red that lines the tea cosy is such a flexible print.